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US says Diggers aren't in fight zones

Rafael Epstein

AUSTRALIA'S restrictions on the deployment of its troops in Afghanistan have sparked a serious rift between military leaders in Washington and Canberra, and are likely to be a key issue during the the US President Barack Obama's visit later this month.

The coalition's military commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, has ''warned that the Rudd governments' refusal to allow Australian troops to take the fight to the Taliban was impairing the US-led war effort''.

General McChrystal delivered the warning in a private phone call late last year to the Australian Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has blocked moves to send Australian-trained Afghan soldiers, and their Australian mentors, to the NATO offensive in Marja in Helmand province.

Senior military sources said General McChrystal had used ''blunt language'', complaining that Canberra was making his job ''incredibly difficult''. The sources said there was potential for ''permanent damage'' to the US perception of Australia's military commitment.

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The issue was due to be raised in January during a scheduled visit by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and the Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates. Military leaders say there was great relief in Air Chief Marshal Houston's office when Mrs Clinton and Mr Gates cancelled their trip because of the Haiti earthquake.

The Herald understands the issue has already been raised at senior military and diplomatic levels and will be discussed when Mr Obama visits Australia at the end of the month.

Marja was a specific example of what the American military sees as a general reluctance by Australia to send its troops outside Uruzgan province, where they are based.

A senior Australian military source said the bitter exchange resulted from an alliance that is a ''perishable relationship which needs sustenance''.

The source says American frustration was expressed to him in this way by a senior US military commander: ''When all is said and done, there will be three nations in this conflict - the US, Britain and the Afghans. So what is Australia doing for us?''

Australia has criticised European nations for restricting the regions where their forces could fight. Last year the overall military commander of NATO, US General John Craddock, said such limits ''increase the risk to every service member deployed in Afghanistan and bring increased risk to mission success''.

US-led forces have for the past few weeks been attacking the Taliban in Marja. When planning the operation last year, the regional coalition commander, with General McChrystal's backing, informally asked if a battalion of Afghan soldiers and their Australian mentors could be deployed outside Uruzgan.

Three senior military officers said that Australia resisted this. The constant theme, they said, was that no formal request should be made because it would be refused. Not making the request would ''make life simpler''.

The US military leadership is frustrated with Mr Rudd, who, when he last met the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, sought an undertaking that the Afghan National Army's 4th Brigade would not deploy outside Uruzgan. This included their Australian mentors, keeping them away from Helmand where the fighting is more fierce and frequent. Even in Uruzgan, the US military is concerned that Canberra restricts night patrols.